A host of Champions League clubs have reportedly dealt FIFA a crushing blow by rejecting their proposal to revamp the Club World Cup from the summer of 2025.
World football's chief governing body are said to have been in negotiations with Europe's elite sides over the past week, seeking their approval to stage a new 32-team competition to be held in the United States, where fragments of the next international World Cup will take place in 2026. According to the Mail, however, the clubs invited are refusing to accept FIFA's plan.
President Gianni Infantino had hoped to seal the deal during a meeting of the European Clubs Association held in Doha, Qatar last Friday. But when the ECA, which represents the 220 leading European sides, made it clear that they wouldn't sign-off on the proposal, Infantino pulled out at the eleventh hour.
FIFA then appeared to perform an act of retribution, refusing to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the ECA just three weeks before the current agreement expires on December 31. If a new deal isn't signed off before the next international break in March, clubs could, in theory, refuse to release players to represent their countries.
Keen on the idea of relaunching the Club World Cup for several years, FIFA recently saw a 24-team tournament - which was planned to take place in China last year - scrapped because of the pandemic. Infantino and co looking to hold their expanded competition every four years in place of the existing annual event which has been criticised for lacking value in recent years.
European football's confederate governing body, UEFA, on the other hand, are opposed to the plans. They view a revamped Club World Cup - a tournament which usually takes play in December of each year as teams from six continents face off to determine a global champion - as a threat to their staple competition, the Champions League.
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But with £150milllion in prize money mooted for the new Club World Cup, clubs may be more open to eventually coming to an understanding with FIFA than UEFA. It's added that the ECA want the international calendar to be fully agreed before committing their clubs to any further competitions given the amount of fixture congestion already in play due to the effects of Covid-19.
FIFA are scrambling to beat the clock on their plans, too, as they're yet to firm up either a format for the final stage in 2025 or a qualification mechanism. The USA is seen as an ideal location given that the country will co-host the 2026 World Cup 12 months later, sharing the international tournament with neighbouring Canada and Mexico.
